Your website is the front door to your business. At a basic level, it has to make a good impression, be easy to navigate, and lead audiences to products, services, or information that meets their needs and solves their problems. But there’s no one-size-fits-all solution, especially when sites require complex integrations with multiple data sources.
It’s important to partner with a team that understands and embraces those complexities. That’s our specialty.
The approach and the complexities
Metro Health – University of Michigan Health selected ddm to assist the organization in developing an expertly-designed website optimized for user experience with complex integrations to allow patients to access their medical records, schedule appointments, search physician databases, pay bills, and find locations near them.
We approached the execution of this large-scale project using an agile-sprint process. The project was tackled in two-week increments—called sprints—allowing us to share progress toward the end goal with Metro Health leadership on a consistent basis. This process doesn’t give the client the classic “ta-da” moment where a website is unveiled in its entirety, but, instead, constant feedback and process improvements along the way ensure the finished product is exactly what the client needs.
A collaborative partnership
This project is a textbook example of successful inter-team collaboration. On the ddm side, we incorporated developers, project managers, account leadership, designers, a content developer and a digital analytics specialist. Metro Health’s team was composed of its marketing and IT departments as well as executive leadership. Our teams met every Thursday, and the workload was divided between our internal team and Metro Health’s internal development resources.
Together, our goal was to create a more cohesive and elevated online experience that aligned with Metro Health’s innovative and world-class reputation as well as the organization’s vision for the future. We established solid principles for content and design development that guided us throughout the development process.
The results
The project required a rewrite of all website content, a complete layout redesign, and improved functionality. We were able to condense content from multiple pages into fewer, well-organized, and concise pages that were easier to find. We successfully integrated the site with Metro Health’s electronic health record (EHR) system called EPIC to keep patient information protected and align with critical health regulations. We helped make it easier for patients to find a doctor, schedule an appointment, find a location, and pay a bill by structuring these options clearly on the home page.
Additionally, we prioritized simplicity in our development to allow Metro Health to maintain the site internally and make updates as needed. The organization is now poised for success and can easily adjust as needs arise.
“Way to come together everyone! I view the launch as a complete success. I have heard nothing but positives regarding our new site. You all came together, worked as a truly cohesive team, and hit our go-live date. So proud of the work you all have done.”
Josh Wilda, Metro Health – University of Michigan Health CIO
With a robust team of in-house developers, ddm helps plan, architect, design, and build digital solutions that balance your organization’s goals with user needs and technology opportunities. The results can vary from dynamic customer- focused websites to sales-enabling web applications that integrate with third-party data sources.